A page out of history

Ken Gordon, The Columbus Dispatch

Tuesday

Nov 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2011 at 5:13 PM

Gingerly picking up a tattered piece of history, Elizabeth Higgins spoke softly. 'Don't worry, little paper,' she said, as if addressing a small child: 'You won't be handled much more ever again.' Then the Ohio Historical Society curator placed the front page of an Oct. 13, 1859, edition of the Weekly Piketon Union in a sandwich of acid-free cardboard and clear Mylar.

'Don’t worry, little paper,' she said, as if addressing a small child: 'You won’t be handled much more ever again.'

Then the Ohio Historical Society curator placed the front page of an Oct. 13, 1859, edition of the Weekly Piketon Union in a sandwich of acid-free cardboard and clear Mylar.

She taped and sealed the edges until the 152-year-old newspaper was safely preserved for posterity.

Later the same day, the paper was back where it was recently found — in Waverly, ready for display in the Pike Heritage Museum.

“It’s exciting for me,” said Tom Adkins, the director of the Pike County library and a former historical-society board member.

“This was quite a discovery for us.”

The museum is exactly where the newspaper was discovered nearly two months ago, on Oct. 8.

A mason, Charles Fyffe, was repairing bricks on a corner of the 1859 building, originally the German Evangelical Church.

About 4 feet above the street and two bricks deep, Fyffe found a metal tube. He left it untouched and notified museum workers, who figured he had reached a time capsule.

Then, with several historians present, the capsule was removed and opened. Inside were two four-page newspapers— the Weekly Piketon Union and the Oct. 4, 1859, issue of the Waverly Dollar Times — plus a few coins.

“The papers were stuck to the side (of the tube),” said Waverly historian Verlon “Cookie” Krisewetter, who emptied the contents.

“There were a few little holes that had rusted through, but, other than that, it was in pretty good shape.”

Preservation experts disagreed.

Along with other society curators, Higgins wasn’t sure that the newspapers could be saved.

The papers had sustained water and insect damage, curator Matt Benz said, and possibly mold damage.

“I hate time capsules,” said Wes Boomgaarden, preservation officer for the Ohio State University Libraries. “People do a better job of using good weatherproof containers nowadays, but a lot of the old ones, the contents are just lost.”

The historical society, Benz said, evaluates every collection of newspapers, maps, books, letters and other documents that the museum receives.

Surprisingly few of the items are preserved for display — about 1?percent, he said.

In the past, documents chosen for preservation would have been laminated — a practice since frowned upon because it uses heat, which damages paper. Also, lamination presses the plastic directly onto the paper.

The preferred process these days is called encapsulation, which usually involves placing the paper between two sheets of Mylar and sealing only the edges.

Because nothing touches the document itself, the plastic might be opened and the paper removed.

“The idea is sort of like the first rule for doctors: Stabilize and do no harm,” Boomgaarden said.

The historical society usually uses encapsulation only for its own collections but makes exceptions — as in the case of the Waverly newspaper — for select organizations.

The society doesn’t have the staff to handle requests from the general public, said Jason Crabill, manager of curatorial services.

Instead, staff members usually refer people to commercially available products, such as storage boxes made of acid-free materials, or to for-profit conservation companies.

“(Proper) storage is 90?percent of what needs to be done,” Boomgaarden said.

Because the Pike County newspapers were so degraded, the society staff chose to use a more-solid cardboard backing and make only one side of the page available for display.

The effort was more than enough for Pike County residents.

The encapsulated papers were back at the museum in time for the recent Jingle Bell Festival in Waverly.

“Considering the condition they had been in, they looked great,” Adkins said. “We were thrilled to be able to see them and read the content.

“They came to life.”

kgordon@dispatch.com

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